Hope and Healing with PTSD How We Found Strength in the Darkest Nights
- Sheila Buffy
- Sep 5, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 5, 2025
What Hope Really Is
Hope is not fragile. It is not something that disappears the moment life grows heavy. Real hope is strong. It whispers that you can still stand even when everything inside you feels broken. For our family, hope and healing with PTSD was not something we could always see. It was something we had to choose one day at a time.
The Weight PTSD Carried Into Our Home
Living with PTSD meant there were nights so heavy it was hard to believe morning would ever come. Silence filled the house not peaceful silence but the kind that pressed down like a storm. My husband would pace the floor in the middle of the night trapped in memories he could not escape.
I sat in the darkness with tears running down my face praying for peace that seemed too far away. Hope was not something we felt in those moments. Hope was something we reached for even when our hearts were tired.
Hope Found in Small Moments
Hope does not erase pain. It does not undo the past. What it does is remind us that pain will not last forever. Sometimes hope is as small as surviving one more night. Sometimes it is as big as hearing laughter after weeks of silence.
Smokey our little Shih Tzu often carried hope into our home. On nights when my husband could not rest Smokey curled beside him steady and warm. In the early mornings when exhaustion weighed heavy Smokey greeted us with joy that could not be silenced. His presence reminded us that love was still alive even in the middle of fear.
Wrestling With Hopelessness
There were days when I felt hopeless too. Watching the person you love fight invisible battles is its own kind of heartbreak. I questioned God. I wondered why healing felt so far away. The answers never came the way I wanted.
What I did receive was presence. A quiet assurance that we were not alone. Sometimes it came through prayer. Sometimes through a sunrise after a sleepless night. Sometimes through the soft weight of Smokey curled in our laps. Hope was not loud. It was quite steady and just enough to keep us moving forward.
Choosing Hope Every Day
Hope is not something that floats down from the sky. It is a choice. It is choosing to believe that your story is not over even when everything in you says it is. For us hope came in thousands of small moments. A hand held in the dark. A whispered prayer. A paw resting on my husband’s arm. Laughter we thought we had lost.
Each moment of hope strung together like threads weaving a lifeline that carried us through.
Looking Back
When I look back on our journey I see that hope was present even when I thought it was gone. It was in every tear we survived in every night we endured and in every morning we opened our eyes and kept going. Hope was not about ignoring pain. It was about believing we could still live even with scars.
Final Thoughts of Hope and Healing With PTSD
If you are walking through your own dark nights I want you to know this. Hope is still possible. It may not look the way you imagined. It may not arrive in loud or dramatic ways. It may come in small forms a kind word a quiet prayer a little dog who refuses to leave your side.
Hope is not fragile. Hope is strength born in struggle. It is the courage to face another day. It is the love that refuses to let go. It is the light that rises even after the longest night.
I share more of our journey in my memoirs where you will find stories of survival faith and the quiet ways hope kept us alive.
Read more. Support me.
If this story touched your heart you can go deeper in my memoirs
Smokey The Little Dog That Saved Us and Love That Never Let Go.
Both share our real journey through love trauma faith and healing and the little Shih Tzu who carried us through.
And if you would like to help keep Smokey’s Corner alive with daily hope and encouragement you can leave a little tip of support. Every coffee every paw print of kindness helps us share stories that remind others they are not alone.
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